1. Positron Emission Tomography Imaging of Clinical Infectious Diseases
- Author
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Christophe Van de Wiele, Rudi Dierckx, Olivier De Winter, and Hamphrey Ham
- Subjects
carbohydrates (lipids) ,Pathology ,medicine.medical_specialty ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,Positron emission tomography ,medicine ,Polyarthritis ,Medical history ,FDG-Positron Emission Tomography ,Biology ,Vasculitis ,medicine.disease - Abstract
Publisher Summary Over the past few years, the finding of increased 2-Fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose (FDG) accumulation by inflammatory and infectious cells has resulted in a number of promising reports on the potential of FDG positron emission tomography (PET) imaging in different types of infections and inflammations. This chapter discusses the results deriving from these studies. Promising results have been obtained with FDG-PET in the field of clinical infectious diseases. Available studies suggest that the specificity of FDG-PET will be limited by the fact that FDG accumulates in sterile inflammatory lesions and tumors. Thus, depending on the clinical setting, the problem of specificity may theoretically limit the use of FDG-PET in infectious diseases. However, in most patients, a thorough medical history makes the presence of tumour unlikely, and sterile inflammations such as chronic polyarthritis, vasculitis, and tumors often appear at sites or show distribution patterns that are suggestive of these diseases.
- Published
- 2004